ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the concepts of splitting of the ego and virtual reality. The "splitting of the ego" is a notion that appears late in Sigmund Freud's theory. "Reality", as conceived of by the ego, was produced through a consistent and solid cluster of representations—the ego's representational set. "Reality" is determined by the consistency between perception and representation—that is, by the ego's expectations regarding "how things ought to be". Freudian theory grew stronger by considering one and only one splitting—the one taking place between consciousness and the unconscious due to primal repression. Freud's tendency to incorporate splitting to the psychopathological complex of his theory becomes more evident in his essay An Outline of Psycho-Analysis. Since his work on fetishism, Freud seems to have become open to the idea that the splitting of the ego is another possible recourse to face a horrifying event.
